geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. >>> there you go. the holiday season has begun. that was a pretty packed times square. let's go now to our three big money headlines. sandy's impact. buyers are back. and a big bake sale. joining me now forbes staff writer morgan brennan. let's get to hurricane sandy which took a toll of on consumer spending. "consumer reports" says spending fell in october after rising in september. the gdp was higher than estimated. i never can quite figure out how they can both be true and whether or not this continues in coming months. >> that's a great question. i think we need to start with the revised number for the third quarter. the reason we saw gdp growth in the third quarter was because businesses were restocking their inventory. an government spending increased about 9.5%. not sustainable indicators of economic growth in the long term. consumer spending makes up about 70% of economic growth. the fact we saw that come down in october and actually the fact in november the early numbers despite a robust holid